Metro Vancouver planners warn a big new bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel may “unleash pent-up travel demand” and lead more people to abandon buses and carpools in favour of driving alone on the Highway 99 corridor.

A report by senior planner Ray Kan suggests the new bridge may also draw more drivers from other crossings such as the Alex Fraser Bridge, which would counter the region’s growth plans that aim to see half of all trips by 2030 made by walking, cycling and transit, and to reduce the distances people drive by one-third.

“Unfettered access could easily result in a congested facility,” Kan wrote in a report that goes to Metro’s transportation committee Wednesday. “Further, an expanded facility may simply move the ‘bottleneck’ further downstream or upstream.”

The report notes that while Metro supports better goods movement along the Highway 99 corridor, last month’s announcement of the bridge was “unexpected” given the lack of technical information provided during the consulting process.

The province has also yet to release a business plan on the project’s scope, design or cost, or announce whether the bridge would be tolled, which could affect the availability of provincial funding for other transportation projects across the Metro region.

“We have to move goods and people around the region but there has to be an integrated plan,” said Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, who chairs the transportation committee. “That’s the piece that’s missing in all of this ... is there additional opportunity get people out of their cars?

“There certainly is a need for upgrades to the tunnel or a new bridge there but there’s also everything that goes with it. It’s hard to comment when we haven’t seen the plan.”

The uncertainty around the bridge puts into doubt the validity of the technical work being done by TransLink on its regional goods and transportation strategies, as well as on the Pattullo Bridge review, the report says. It also raises the spectre of unplanned growth in the area as a result of replacing the tunnel with a bridge.

“It is unclear what basic demographic assumptions the ministry has been using to justify the proposed capacity on the bridge,” the report states. “It is also unclear what assumptions have been made about plans by Port Metro Vancouver to expand container throughput capacity at Roberts Bank, and to better utilize available marine terminal capacity at Fraser Surrey Docks.”

Transportation Minister Todd Stone on Tuesday refused to provide further details on the bridge project, saying only that an investment is needed in the George Massey tunnel to reduce significant choke points in the Lower Mainland.

The province maintains the tunnel is in need of repair as it does not meet modern seismic standards, and has aging operating systems, narrow lanes and no capacity for cyclists.

About 77 per cent of all vehicles using the tunnel in 2011 were single-occupant vehicles, with 10 per cent multi-occupant vehicles and one per cent buses (which carry about 26 per cent of people through the tunnel).

“You talk to people south of the Fraser and they will tell you the George Massey tunnel is overdue. If we want to provide possible rapid bus to serve the communities of the Fraser Valley, we can’t do that with the current tunnel,” Stone said.

“Any suggestion we’re out of sync with the regional plan simply is not true. We believe we’re tackling the next bottleneck in the Lower Mainland.”

Stone said there would be improvements to the Highway 99 corridor on both sides of the existing tunnel, but it’s unclear whether the project will extend as far as Vancouver’s Oak Street. He was whisked out of Waterfront SkyTrain station by his assistants before he could elaborate.

“It would be very similar to the Port Mann (Highway 1 improvement project),” he said.

Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said he’s worried the plan could potentially have an effect on the regional growth strategy as well as on farmland in nearby municipalities.

“I’m very concerned about the effect of this. At the foundation of it all we certainly want that corridor to be decongested, but the implications of this — I have no idea what they’re going to be,” he said. “We really don’t know what the ramifications of the bridge, or what the full project is ... the details have been so scant.”

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